Buffalo Bills' Head Coach Not the Real Issue

The Buffalo Bills have made news in the offseason for what is not happening: Hiring a head coach.

The longer this goes on, the worse things will get.  Why is this happening?

So far the Bills have failed to hire Mike Shanahan and Brian Schottenheimer, have failed to stir the interest of Bill Cowher, despite fans making a pathetic attempt to do so by spending money on a billboard, have been told by ex-coach-new-Giants-coach Perry Fewell "I didn't want it anyway," and have yet to be turned down by Leslie Frazier and Russ Grimm.

(Note: I could use the money.  Maybe I'll apply.  I can't do much worse than the coaches of the past decade.)

Normally, anybody will leap at the chance to become a head coach in the NFL, so there seems to an element of insult in this hiring process.

In these terrible years of recession, with mass unemployment and despair, the fact that there is a prominent and lucrative position being turned down over and over speaks volumes.

So what is the answer?

Nobody believes in the Buffalo Bills.

Nobody believes in Ralph Wilson.

Nobody believes in Buddy Nix.

It wasn't always so.  When you have a credible man like Marv Levy around, people want to join your organization.  When it's perceived that you are a joke, people shun you like poison.

Just ask the Toronto Maple Leafs during the Harold Ballard and the John Ferguson Jr. years.

It would be a difficult task to succeed Levy.  He did a masterful job reaching the Super Bowl four consecutive times, even though he came away without a victory.

By the time he left, the team was past its prime, with veteran stalwarts nearing retirement or trading status.

Since then, the team has floundered in its rebuilding process and the credibility of the team has shrunk with it.

Once, anyone would have begged to join a "model franchise," now people are turning up their noses at it.  Where is this rot located?

1. The Standings

The Bills haven't made the playoffs in a decade, since 1999.  When losing becomes a disease, credible people (with the exception of Terrell Owens) suspect something is wrong somewhere and don't want any part of it.

2. The Coaching

Last year's debacle is only going to increase disrespect and aversion.  When you sign Owens to be your big offensive weapon and then don't throw him the football, you increase the perception that you are a laughingstock.

3. The Players and Draft

The Bills have been rebuilding for over a decade, far longer than successful teams.  If the team had drafted and developed the right players, they would have been contenders long ago. 

Quarterbacking has been atrocious with J. P. Losman being handed the job and then playing himself off the team.  The jury is still out on Trent Edwards and Ryan Fitzpatrick.  Mishandling players like Owens has made things worse.

4. The Ownership

Without Marv Levy, Wilson has stripped himself bare of almost all credibility.  Besides the personnel problems at the management, coaching, and player level, Wilson has left himself open to charges that he really wants this team to be successful with these policies:

a)  Playing games in Toronto.  It doesn't show confidence in your own market.  It is simply a greedy cash-grab from a wealthier city.  Even the most die-hard NFL Toronto fan, dying for a franchise of his own, winces at the ticket prices being charged by Wilson.  Games that should automatically sell-out have caused fans to have second thoughts about spending their money on the Bills.  Instead of getting fans excited about the NFL coming to Toronto, it gives the image that the NFL and Wilson are trying to exploit them.

These games also undermine the faith of the original fans in Western New York.  It is supposed to be Buffalo's team even though 30,000 Canadians regularly buy tickets.  How can a fan from Buffalo put his/her heart in a team that appears to be moving out of town?  Why do you want to play games in a city with a smaller stadium and a currency worth less than your own?

It also calls into question how the Bills are marketed.  True, Toronto is a much wealthier city and many fans come from Canada, but the Bills' market in New York State stretches from Syracuse to Erie, Pennsylvania, a market of nearly four million people without any need to cross the border.  How are the Bills marketed in Rochester?  Syracuse?  Erie?  Nobody questions it.

b)  Wilson's refusal to publicly name his successor doesn't ensure the continuity of the franchise. 

In contrast with a franchise like Pittsburgh, which has passed from generation to generation with the Rooney family, the future of the franchise is engulfed with speculation.  The Bills need a strong man at the wheel to get a sense of where they are going and who is in charge.  Not knowing undermines the faith of the management, players, and fans.

c)  The Bills have been publicly named as one of the seven targets by the Los Angeles stadium group that wants an established team instead of an expansion one. 

Wilson could have squashed this by publicly stating that this wasn't an option.  By saying nothing, he only adds to the instability and loss of credibility.

So the Bills fans are left with a second-class team which will probably ensure the hiring of a second-class head coach.

But that's not the real problem.  The air needs to be cleared around this franchise in order to restore credibility.  Buffalo's fans are being tolerant because the Bills and Sabres are all they have. 

But as long as this continues, Buffalo may have to wait for a second decade before making the playoffs again, or wave goodbye as the team leaves for Toronto or the West Coast.